The derivation of this name is simple. Lysons says: “The name of this place was anciently called Tiburn, from its situation near a small bourn or rivulet formerly called Aye-brook or Eye-brook, and now Tybourn Brook. When the site of the church was altered to another spot, near the same brook, it became St. Mary at the Bourne, now corrupted to St. Mary le bone or Marybone.” There is a possibility that the “bourne” did not indicate the brook, but the boundary of the parish, in which case Marybone would still be a corruption of St. Mary at the Bourne.
The borough of Marylebone is unique in many respects. It contains many well-known and magnificent houses, such as Montagu House, Portman Square; Hertford House, Manchester Square, where is Sir Richard Wallace’s collection of pictures and curiosities; Portland House, Cavendish Square; and others. More than two-thirds of Regent’s Park are within its boundaries, including nearly all the Zoological Gardens. In some parts of the borough the street lists furnish many titled and famous names; in others are the poorest and most squalid districts, rivalling in misery those of the East End.
Many foreign embassies are located within the parish boundaries. But the most striking characteristic is the great number of hospitals. There are hospitals for special diseases everywhere, besides large institutions which have acquired more than Metropolitan fame.
The ancient Tyburn stream ran right through this district. It rose not far from Swiss Cottage, and ran for a few hundred yards through Regent’s Park, across the road at Sussex Place, between Gloucester Place and Baker Street, across the Marylebone Road, then, turning westward under Madame Tussaud’s, by South Street to the foot of High Street, passing along close to Mandeville Place, it crossed Wigmore Street and so reached Oxford Street.
The manor of Tyburn is mentioned in Domesday Book among the possessions of the Abbess and Convent of Barking. Early in the thirteenth century it was held by Robert de Vere, whose daughter married William de Insula, Earl of Warren and Surrey, from whom the manor passed to their heirs, the Fitzalans, Earls of Arundel. The Berkeleys, Nevilles and Howards divided three-quarters of it later, and one quarter went to Henry V. as heir of the Earls of Derby.
About the end of the fifteenth century Thomas Hobson bought up the greater part of the manor, and in 1544 his son Thomas exchanged it with Henry VIII. in consideration of lands elsewhere.
The manor remained with the Crown until James I. sold it to one Edward Forset, who had previously held it at a fixed rental under Elizabeth. James reserved to the Crown the tract of land then known as Marylebone, now Regent’s, Park. Sir John Austen, Forset’s grandson, sold the estate to John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, for L17,500. The Duke of Newcastle’s only child, Henrietta, married Edward Harley, who succeeded his father as Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. He carried on his father’s collection of books and MSS., and formed what was afterwards known as the Harleian Collection, which was bought by the trustees of the British Museum for L10,000. Henrietta’s only daughter, Margaret, married William Bentinck, second Earl of Portland, and thus the estates passed to the Portland family.
In the west was another manor, that of Lyllestone, a name still preserved in the corruption, “Lisson” Grove. This manor is mentioned in Domesday Book among the lands in the hundred of Ossulston. In 1338 it was in the hands of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Sir William de Clyf held it from the knights. In 1512 the then Lord Prior granted a parcel of land out of the manor to John and Johan Blennerhasset on a fifty years’ lease. On their decease Chief Justice Portman acquired their interest, afterwards obtaining the land in fee simple, and thus creating the Portman estate. This estate comprised 270 acres. The remainder of Lyllestone Manor included several estates of importance. The St. John’s Wood estate was granted by Charles II. to Lord Wotton in discharge of a debt. In 1732 it was bought by Samuel Eyre, after whom it was known as the Eyre Estate.
Another estate lying along the Edgware Road was bequeathed to Harrow School by John Lyon. A third was known as City Conduit Estate. The borough at present embraces the Eyre estate at St. John’s Wood, the Baker estate, comprising the poor district to the west of Lisson Grove, the Portman estate, the Portland estate, and other land, including the park held by the Crown.
Beginning our ramble at St. John’s Wood Station in the heart of the borough, we find ourselves near the well-known Lord’s Cricket Ground. Thomas Lord first made a cricket-ground in what is now Dorset Square, and in 1814 it was succeeded by the present one, which is the headquarters of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the club that gives laws to the cricketing world. Among the most popular matches which take place here are the annual contests between Oxford and Cambridge, Eton and Harrow, when the resources of space are taxed to the utmost. Besides these, during the season, the M.C.C. matches, the Middlesex Club matches, and Gentlemen v. Players are played here. Lord’s has been increased many times since its inauguration; most recently by a piece of ground, about two acres, which was formerly part of the site of the Clergy Orphanage. This was presented by the Great Central Railway Company in return for the privilege of being permitted to tunnel a corner of the cricket ground.
The extension of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, now known as the Great Central Railway, has completely altered the face of Marylebone. The demolition caused by it extends up the west side of the Wellington and Finchley Roads; but it is further south that the greatest changes have taken place. St. John’s Wood Road is itself untouched, the line passing under it.
The part of the parish lying to the west and north contains nothing of any exceptional interest. There are wide roads and well-built terraces, and an air of prosperity that speaks well for the neighbourhood. A Home for Incurable Children, founded in 1873, is near the Maida Vale end of St. John’s Wood Road, and in Hamilton Terrace is St. Mark’s Church, in modern Gothic style; a Presbyterian church and several chapels are also to be found in this neighbourhood.
Returning to the point from whence we set out, we find St. John’s Wood Chapel, which is in the classical style, designed by Hardwicke in 1814. The chapel stands well at the junction of four important roads; its Ionic portico is dignified and suitable to the position. The body of the chapel is covered with ivy, and the windows look down on a large burial-ground, now open as a public garden, which is peculiarly bright and well kept. In it are many fine trees, chiefly willows, which overhang the seats placed for public comfort. The gravestones, which are many, have not been removed, and with few exceptions are of the regular round-topped pattern. In the vault beneath the chapel lies the wife of Benjamin West, P.R.A. In 1833 there had been about 40,000 persons buried in this ground, and it is probable this number was greatly exceeded before the burials ceased. Joanna Southcott was buried here in 1814.
Further north in the Finchley Road All Saints’ Church stands up conspicuously. This is a fine church in the Perpendicular style, built in 1846. The chancel was added in 1866, and the tower and spire in 1889. It is really the church of the Eyre estate, and was largely built by the Eyre family. There is in it a beautiful marble font of uncommon pattern, and a pulpit to match.
This part of Marylebone, to the north of Regent’s Park, has a High Street of its own—a wide street with comparatively low buildings. The vista, on looking back from the top to the trees of the burial-ground and Regent’s Park, is not unattractive. The shops which line either side of the road, though small, are clean and bright. St. John’s Wood Terrace is a very wide thoroughfare. In it stands St. John’s Wood Church, chiefly distinguished by a very heavy portico. The church is at present used by the Congregationalists, and was formerly known as Connaught Chapel. Just beyond the chapel we come to the St. Marylebone Almshouses. They are built round three sides of a square, and enclose a quadrangle of green grass. The blue slate roofs and drab stuccoed walls form a gentle contrast. The central house, occupied by the superintendent, is fronted by a clock over the Royal Arms.
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Hampstead and Marylebone – The Fascination of London
by Geraldine Edith Mitton
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By the will of Simon, Count Woronzow, dated September 19, 1827, the sum of L500 was left for the poor of the parish of Marylebone, and this sum was given by the Vestry, under certain conditions, to the committee for the proposed erection of almshouses in 1836, to be by them applied to building purposes. Various charitable subscriptions and donations have been added from time to time, until at present the almshouses afford an asylum to about fifty-two single women and eight married couples. The recipients must be of good character, and must have paid rates in the parish of Marylebone for at least ten years, and never received parochial relief. They must be over the age of sixty years. They must have a small weekly sum of their own or guaranteed by a friend. They receive shelter and free firing; the single inmates receive in addition 7s. a week, and the married couples 10s. 6d. The corner houses, in which the rooms are larger, are occupied by the married couples. The central building contains the board-room, lined by the names of generous donors. On the staircase is a bust of Count Woronzow, whose name is also commemorated in the road which runs on the east side of the houses.
The parish extends to within about fifty yards of the summit of Primrose Hill on the south side. At this spot three stones, erect, standing together, mark the point where the three boroughs of Hampstead, St. Pancras, and Marylebone meet. Not far below is a covered reservoir. This spot was formerly known as Barrow Hill, a name supposed to be derived from burials which anciently took place here. St. Stephen the Martyr’s Church stands just within the parish boundaries of Marylebone. It is a pretty little Gothic church with a square battlemented tower and triple-gabled east end. It was built in 1849, and restored thirty years ago. The interior of the church is not equal to the exterior. All the roads lying to the north-west are in uniform style, with comfortable modern villa houses.
When the Manor of Tyburn was let to Edward Forset, King James reserved Marylebone Park for the Crown, and it remained in the same keeping until 1646. In that year King Charles I. granted it to two faithful adherents, Sir G. Strode and J. Wandesford, in payment for arms and ammunition which they had supplied to him. In the time of the Commonwealth the park was seized and was sold on behalf of the opposite cause, the proceeds being devoted to the payment of one of Cromwell’s regiments of dragoons. At the Restoration it was restored to its former holders, who retained it until the debt due to them was discharged. The park was then let to various leaseholders, the last of whom was the Duke of Portland, whose lease ended in 1811, when the land reverted to the Crown.
The ground was laid out by Nash in 1812, and was named Regent’s Park in honour of the then Regent (George IV.), for whom it was proposed to build a palace in the centre of the park, in the spot now occupied by the Botanical Gardens.
Regent Street was designed to form a continuous line between the Palace and Carlton House, near St. James’s Park. Nash built all the terraces in the park except Cornwall Terrace, which was the work of Decimus Burton. By a clause in the lease the lessees of the houses in these terraces have to repaint the exteriors in August every fourth year. The broad walk and adjacent flower-beds were laid out and opened to the public in 1838.
The park is about 400 acres in extent. The ornamental water is in shape something like the three legs on a Manx halfpenny. A terrible accident happened here in 1867, when the ice gave way and forty skaters lost their lives; since then the pond has been reduced to a uniform depth of 4 feet. The water for this is supplied by the ancient Tyburn Brook.
South Villa was built about 1836, and an observatory was erected here by Mr. Bishop; this was frequently used by Dawes and Hinde, who here discovered many asteroids and variable stars.
St. Dunstan’s Villa was formerly occupied by the Marquis of Hertford, and is of considerable size. It is in the Italian style, and was designed by Decimus Burton, whose name is almost as closely associated with the park as Nash’s own. The name of St. Dunstan’s arose from the two gigantic wooden figures of Gog and Magog, which the Marquis brought from St. Dunstan’s, Fleet Street, where they had been since 1671.
A panorama was formerly exhibited in Regent’s Park, in a great building called the Colosseum. This was opened in 1829, and attracted crowds of people. It stood on the east side of Regent’s Park near Park Square.
Regent’s Park Baptist College is established in an old house known as Holford House, from its first owner Mr. Holford.
The building is of great size and stuccoed; within, the central hall, used for prayers, has an ornamental gallery. The domed skylight is of coloured glass, and a huge bronze statue of Bunyan, by Sir E. Boehm, stands on the south side.
The former ballroom, now used for lectures, debates, etc., is a magnificent room, with richly mounted ceiling and walls decorated with plaster work painted to resemble wood. The dining-room is also of great size. The students’ studies are at the east and west ends of the building, and the common rooms in the centre. The extreme west wing is let privately, as the whole house is too large for the college requirements.
Regent’s Canal was begun in 1812, and was opened August 1, 1820, with a procession of boats, barges, etc. It is in total length 8 miles 6 furlongs, and descends about 84 feet from the beginning to the end.
In Regent’s Park there are various enclosed gardens and grounds—namely, the Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, and the grounds of the Toxophilite Society. The first of these is too well known to need much description. The Zoological Society originated in 1826, and was incorporated three years later. Sir Humphrey Davy and Sir Stamford Raffles are the two names most closely connected with its foundation. The Gardens were opened in 1828, and contain the finest collection of animals in the world. They are open to the public on payment of 1s. daily and 6d. on Mondays. On Sundays admittance is obtained only by an order from a Fellow.
The Botanical Gardens belong to the Botanical Society, incorporated in 1839 by a Royal Charter. The Gardens fill nearly the whole of what is known as the inner circle in Regent’s Park, a space of ground comprising nearly 20 acres in extent, held on a lease from the Crown. These gardens are tastefully laid out, and include a hot-house (covering about 20,000 feet of ground), winter garden, conservatory, special tropical houses, museum and lecture-room, tennis court, and an ornamental piece of water. Entrance is obtained by an order from a Fellow. Exhibitions of plants, flowers, and fruit take place during the spring and summer. The Duke of Teck is the President.
The Toxophilite Society was founded by Sir Assheton Lever in 1781. He had previously formed a museum of curiosities in Leicester Square on the site of the present Empire Music Hall. It was in the grounds of this house that targets were first shot by the Society. When the museum was sold in 1784 the ground was no longer available. It was in this year that an Archers division of the Honourable Artillery Company was formed. In 1791 an archery ground was rented on the east side of Gower Street, on part of which site Torrington Square now stands. In 1805 this ground was required for building purposes. From this date to 1810 there are no authentic records of the Society, and from then until 1821 the records are intermittent. It is probable the Society shot at Highbury. In 1821 Mr. Lord allowed the members to shoot on his cricket ground on payment of three guineas a day. Mr. Waring, who had been Sir Assheton’s coadjutor in founding the Society, owned ground in Bayswater to the east of Westbourne Street. He had previously offered this site to the Society, and his offer was eventually accepted. In 1833 the present ground in Regent’s Park was obtained. This is about 6 acres in extent and well laid out. It includes a hall with accommodation for members.
The shooting season is divided into two parts: one from the first Thursday in April to the last Thursday in July, and the other from the last Thursday in September to the first Thursday in November. Ladies’ days are a feature of the club, and every Thursday between the above-mentioned dates has some fixture or competition. The only rival to the Royal Toxophilite Society is the Grand National Archery Society.
The part of the borough lying to the west of the park has been immensely altered by the new railway. In fact, the greater part of the buildings have been demolished, and the amount of compensation paid to dispossessed owners and leaseholders is said to be unprecedented.
In Blandford Square there is a convent which has survived the general wreck. It was first established near Queen’s Square, Bloomsbury, in 1844, and was opened on its present site in 1851.
The House of Mercy is for servants out of work, who do laundry and other work, and so contribute to their own support. There are thirty Sisters, who, besides attending to the home, do much charitable work in teaching and the visitation of the sick.
Dorset Square was built on the site of the original Lord’s Cricket Ground. It was made by one Thomas Lord at the end of the eighteenth century, and, as stated above, in 1814 the present ground was substituted, so Dorset Square can claim only a small connection with the famous game. The streets leading northward from Dorset Square are of little interest. In Hill Street is a small Baptist place of worship. In Park Street is St. Cyprian’s little church, opened in 1866.
The last house on the east side of Upper Baker Street bears one of the Society of Arts memorial tablets to the memory of Mrs. Siddons, who lived here intermittently for many years. She used to give readings from Shakespeare to her friends in this house, and here in 1831 she died. The house is now called “Siddons House Private Hotel.”
In the Marylebone Road, close to the underground station, stands Madame Tussaud’s famous waxwork exhibition, the delight of children and visitors from the country. The waxworks were begun in Paris in 1780, and brought to London in 1802 to the place where the Lyceum Theatre now stands, and afterwards were removed to Hanover Square rooms.
On the west side of Park Road are the terraces abutting on Regent’s Park. Some of these terraces show fine design, though in the solid, cumbrous style of the Georgian period. Hanover Terrace was designed by Nash, and also Sussex Place, which was named after the Duke of Sussex. The latter is laid out in a semicircle, and is crowned by cupolas and minarets. The houses are very large, and, in spite of fashion having deserted the district, can still show a goodly list of inhabitants.
The district lying to the west of Sussex Grove and Grove Road is the poorest and most miserable in the borough. In Grove Road is a Home for Female Orphans, a large gabled building. The girls are received here at six years of age, and pass on to service when about sixteen. The little village of Lisson Green stood out in the country not far from the great Roman Road, the present Edgware Road (see p. 58), and it formed the nucleus round which houses and streets sprang up. From the Marylebone Road to St. John’s Wood Road the streets are poor and squalid, abounding in low courts and alleys. Several great Board Schools in the neighbourhood of Great James Street rise up prominently, and round about them neat lines of workmen’s houses are gradually replacing the wretched tenements. The district is still miserable, but it has bettered its notoriously bad reputation of ten or twenty years ago.
St. Barnabas Church, near Bell Street, was built by Blomfield, and is in a kind of French Gothic. Christ Church, in Stafford Street, not far off, is surmounted by a cupola, and built in the classical style. It was the work of P. Hardwick in 1825.
Earl Street is a long, dreary, but fairly respectable thoroughfare. The Marylebone Theatre or Music Hall is in Church Street. This was opened in 1842 as a penny theatre, and enlarged in 1854. In Church Street there is also a Baptist chapel.
Salisbury and Carlisle Streets are indescribably dingy. In the latter is St. Matthew’s Church, which has the (perhaps) unique distinction of having been built for a theatre. It was consecrated in 1853, and restored forty years later. Close by the church, between the two streets mentioned above, is the Portman Market. This was opened as a hay-market in 1830, and the year following was dedicated to general uses. The market is still held on Friday every week. Smith speaks of it as bidding “fair to become a formidable rival to Covent Garden,” a prophecy which has not been fulfilled. There is another Board School of great size between two miserable little streets on the east, and another a little further north between Grove Road and Capland Street.
Infant, National, and Catholic Schools lie near North and Richmond Streets. One or two of the houses to the north of the latter have still retained a certain cottage-like appearance, a memory of the bygone village. Lyon’s Place, a straggling mews, preserves the name of the benefactor who left the estate he had bought here to found Harrow School; and the names Aberdeen, Cunningham, Northwick, etc., are associated with the school.
The Regent’s Canal runs under Aberdeen Place. Emanuel Church, a curious little square building with an Ionic portico, was formerly known as Christ’s Chapel. It was largely remodelled in 1891, and seats over 1,000 persons. On the interior walls are several memorial tablets.
Edgware Road forms the western boundary of the parish. It is a very ancient road. In the 1722 edition of Camden’s “Britannia” we read: “Towards the Northern boundary of Middlesex a military way of the Romans commonly called Watling Street enters this country, coming straight along from the older Verulam to London over Hampstead Heath; not the road which now lies through Highgate, for that, as is before observed, was opened only about 400 [marginal note, 300] years ago by permission of the Bishop of London, but that more ancient way (as appears by the old charters of Edward the Confessor) which ran along near Edgeworth, a place of no great antiquity.”
The difficulty of accounting for the entrance of the road at this particular point has been solved in various ways. It has been suggested that a circuit had been made to avoid the great Middlesex forests, but a more likely theory is that it followed this route to avoid the Hampstead and Highgate hills. Edgware was the name of the first town it passed through after the forests of Middlesex.
We have only to deal with the east side of the road at present. This is lined with shops, varying in quality and increasing in size towards the Marble Arch. There are no buildings of importance. The road ends in Oxford Street, the ancient Tyburn Road, a name associated with the direful history of the gallows.
The Tyburn gallows were originally a huge tripod, subsequently two uprights and a cross beam. The site was frequently changed, so that both Marylebone and Paddington can claim the dreadful association. Timbs says that the gallows were erected on the morning of execution right across the Edgware Road, opposite the house at the corner of Upper Bryanston Street. This house has iron galleries from which the Sheriffs watched the execution, and in it after the ceremony the gallows were deposited. Galleries were erected for spectators as at a gladiatorial show, and special prices were charged for special exhibitions. Among the people who suffered at Tyburn, the best known are: Roger de Mortimer, for treason, 1330; Perkin Warbeck, 1449; the Holy Maid of Kent and her confederates, 1534; Robert Southwell, the Elizabethan poet, 1595; Mrs. Turner, murderess of Sir T. Overbury, 1615.
In 1660-61, on the anniversary of Charles I.’s execution, Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were dragged from their graves and hanged at Tyburn, after which their heads were cut off and exposed on Westminster Hall, and their bodies buried beneath the gallows.
Jack Sheppard was hanged here in 1724, and the last person to suffer at Tyburn was John Austin, in 1783. The turnpike gate across the road near the gallows remained until 1825. It was a double turnpike, with gates on both the Edgware and Uxbridge Roads.
The Marylebone Road was at first called the New Road, when it was cut in 1757. The Bill for its making had met with strong opposition in Parliament from the Duke of Bedford. In consequence of his opposition a clause was introduced prohibiting the erection of any building within 50 feet of the road, and the effect of this prohibition is to be seen in the gardens which front the houses.
The new road was later subdivided into the Marylebone and Euston Roads. Beginning at the Edgware Road, the first building on the south side to attract attention is St. Mark’s Church, designed by Blomfield. This church is of red brick, and is prettily built and surmounted by a high steeple. The schools form a part of the same building. The consecration ceremony took place on June 29, 1872. A few doors further on are the Christian Union Almshouses, founded in John Street, 1832, and extended to Marylebone Road in 1868. These are supported by voluntary contributions, and are for the benefit of old women or married couples of the parishes of Marylebone, Paddington, or part of St. Pancras. The inmates receive sundry gratuities, coal and lodging, but the eligible must possess not less than 4s. 6d. per week.
A neatly built Roman Catholic church with high-pitched roof stands at the corner of Homer Row. This was built about 1860, and is called the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. The northern side of the Marylebone Road, for the distance traversed, consists of huge red brick flats in the most modern style.
Standing back a little from the road, again on the south side, near Harcourt Street, is Paddington Chapel, for Congregationalists.
Queen Charlotte’s Lying-in Hospital and Midwifery Training School comes soon after. This was founded in 1752, and was the third of its kind to be established in London. It was at first situated in Bayswater, and moved to the present site in 1813. In 1809 the Duke of Sussex was elected president for life, and it was he who induced Queen Charlotte to give the hospital her patronage, and to allow it to be called by her name. The Duke was the guiding spirit of the institution until his death in 1843. In 1857 the present building was erected on the site of the older one.
No. 183 is the Yorkshire Stingo public-house, which preserves the name of a celebrated tavern and place of entertainment. From here the first pair of omnibuses in the Metropolis were started on July 4, 1829. They ran to the Bank and back, and were drawn by three horses abreast. The return fare was a shilling, which included the use of a newspaper. A fair was held at the Yorkshire Stingo on May 1 for many years. Close by are the St. Marylebone Public Baths and Wash-houses, which claim the honour of having been the first of the kind in the Metropolis.
The St. Marylebone County Court adjoins. This was erected in 1874-75, when the need for further accommodation than that afforded by the old Court House was felt.
Seymour Street was cut through a nest of slums about 1872-73; it partly replaced the old Stingo Lane, which extended from Marylebone Road to Crawford Street, and was a most disreputable thoroughfare. The Samaritan Free Hospital, for diseases peculiar to women, occupies the place of ten numbers, 161 to 171. This is a fine modern building with fluted pilasters running up the frontage to an ornamental pediment. The memorial stone was laid on July 24, 1889, by the King, then Prince of Wales. The hospital was first established by Dr. Savage in Orchard Street in 1847. The celebrated engineer James Nasmyth, after whom a ward is named, left a bequest of L18,000. There is a well staircase in the building which separates the hospital into two parts, one devoted to medical, the other to surgical cases. The benefits of the hospital are extended free to patients from all parts of the world, not even a subscriber’s letter being required. The only requisites are that the applicant must be poor and respectable and a suitable case, then she is taken in directly a vacancy occurs.
Almost opposite the hospital is the Great Central Hotel, and behind it the railway-station, in an elaborate style that forms a contrast to some of the dismal termini in London. The Western Ophthalmic Hospital, a gloomy-looking stuccoed building, is near at hand. This was founded in 1856.
The small streets leading from the Marylebone Road into York and Crawford Streets are poor in character. In the north of Seymour Place is a small Primitive Methodist chapel, erected in 1875. York Street, in spite of being a little wider, is not much better than its neighbours. In Wyndham Place is the Church of St. Mary’s, Bryanston Square, in the style of Grecian architecture so much affected in this parish. The architect was R. Smirke. Dibdin, the bibliographer, was the first incumbent of this church, and the poetess L. E. Landon was married here June 7, 1838.
Bryanston and Montagu Squares are almost duplicates. They are built on ground known as Ward’s Field, where there was formerly a large pond, which was the cause of many fatal accidents. Near this spot was a little cluster of cottages called Apple Village. The squares were built about the beginning of the present century. They are lined by large houses in a uniform style, and are as fashionable now as in 1833. The Turkish Embassy is at No. 1, Bryanston Square, at the south-east corner.
Horace Street was once known as Cato Street, and was the scene of the infamous conspiracy which originated with Thistlewood in 1820. The conspiracy was to murder the Cabinet Ministers, burst open the prisons, set fire to the Metropolis, and organize a revolution. Thistlewood and his fellow-conspirators were caught in a hay-loft in this street, where they used to hold their meetings, and the five of them, including the ringleader, suffered the extreme penalty of the law, while the rest were transported. It is now a poor and squalid thoroughfare, occupied by general shops, and reached only by a covered entry at each end.
In Nutford Place is St. Luke’s Church, built in the Early English style in 1854. It stands on the site of a cholera hospital, which was not used during the great epidemic of 1849, as there was not a single case in the parish. The church was built in memory of this great deliverance.
The Marylebone Presbyterian church stands between Upper George Street and Little Queen Street.
Upper Berkeley Street contains a Jewish Synagogue, built in 1870 for Jewish dissenters. Brunswick Chapel was built in 1684 by Evelyn Cosway for Lady Berkeley.
In Bryanston Street there is a synagogue which was built for the Spanish and Portuguese Jews resident at the West End. This has been recently superseded by a much larger building in Lauderdale Road, Sutherland Avenue. Quebec Chapel was built in 1788, and is now called the Church of the Annunciation. It has numbered among its incumbents Dr. Alford and Dr. Goulburn, later Deans of Canterbury and Norwich respectively, and Dr. Magee. The number of chapels of every denomination thus shown to cluster in this district is curious.
Great Cumberland Place is fashionable still. This was formerly Great Cumberland Street, and was called after the Duke whose name is associated with Culloden. It leads us out nearly opposite to the Marble Arch.
OXFORD STREET.—Lysons says the north side of the street was completed in 1729, and then called Oxford Street. But against this statement there is the fact that a stone built into a house at the corner of Rathbone Place was dated “Rathbone Place in Oxford Street, 1718.” Pennant remembers Oxford Street “a deep hollow road and full of sloughs, with here and there a ragged house, the lurking place of cut-throats.”
Its chief association will always be that of the many dismal processions going to Tyburn, when some poor wretch, tied upright in a jolting cart with his coffin in front of him, was taken in face of all the world from Newgate to the gallows to “make a public holiday.” The slow grinding of the wheels, the jeers and shouts, the scuffling of those who would be foremost not to miss one tremor of agony, must have combined to form a torture felt even by the most hardened criminal. The scene must have been more degrading still when the punishment was that the victim should be flogged at the cart-tail.
The terrible procession is familiar to all from Hogarth’s illustration “On the way to Tyburn,” one of the series of Idle and Industrious Apprentices. Here he shows people among the crowd sinking up to their knees in mire, thus proclaiming the state of the principal highways in the eighteenth century.
The present Oxford Street is a wide and handsome thoroughfare, with many splendid shops lining either side. There are no buildings of any public importance. The Princess’s Theatre occupies the site of a large bazaar known as Queen’s Bazaar. It has been many times remodelled and rebuilt. The latest rebuilding was in 1879. Its chief claim to notice is that here took place Kean’s famous Shakespearian revivals.
The part of the borough lying to the north of Oxford Street includes both the oldest and the most aristocratic quarters. Bryanston and Montagu Squares have been already noticed.
Portman Square was begun about 1764, but not completed for nearly twenty years. The centre was at first a shrubbery or wilderness, and here the Turkish Ambassador placed a summer-house or kiosk, where he used to sit when the Turkish Embassy was in this Square. Thornbury says he was then occupying Montagu House, but Smith says the Embassy was in No. 78, and Montagu House is now numbered 22. However, it is possible that the numbers have been altered. The list of the names of the present inhabitants reads like a page from the Court Guide. Among the most important are those of the Duke and Duchess of Fife at No. 15, and Viscount Portman at Montagu House.
This house was built for Mrs. Montagu, a celebrated blue-stocking of the eighteenth century. She was born at York in 1720, and came to Montagu House in 1781. Here she founded the “Blue-Stocking” Club, and gathered round her many famous men and women. On May 1 every year she gave a feast to all the chimney-sweeps of London, “so that they might enjoy one happy day in the year,” an expression hardly appreciated now when the lot of chimney-sweeps is so very different from what it was then. Timbs remarks of the house: “Here Miss Burney was welcomed and Dr. Johnson grew tame.” The lease reverted to the Portman family in 1874.
York Place, Baker Street, and Orchard Street form a long line cutting straight through from Marylebone Road to Oxford Street. Baker Street was named after a friend of W. H. Portman’s. The combined thoroughfare is uniformly ugly, with stiff, flat houses and some shops. Nos. 8 and 9, York Place were once occupied by Cardinal Wiseman, and later by Cardinal Manning. They are now Bedford College for Ladies. The Baker Street Bazaar was originally designed for the sale of horses, and behind it, until 1861, was held the Smithfield Cattle Club Show. Later, the bazaar was the scene of Madame Tussaud’s well-known waxworks.
Portman Chapel, near Adam Street, was built in 1779. Between King and George Streets is Little George Street, in which is a French chapel, built in the reign of George III. by emigres from the French Revolution. It is a Catholic chapel, and is called “Chapelle de St. Louis de France.”
Orchard Street was named after W. H. Portman, of Orchard Portman in Somerset, who bought the estate of the manor. St. Thomas’s Church is the only object of note in the street; it was built by Hardwick, and consecrated July 1, 1858.
In Lower Seymour Street is the Steinway Hall, used for concerts and various entertainments. In Nos. 9, 11, 13 is the home of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. Two of these houses were formerly occupied by the Samaritan Eye Hospital. A statue of our Lord stands over the central doorway, and at His feet an inscription on stone announces that a night-home for girls of good character was originally started here, and was founded by public subscription in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and in memory of the pilgrimage made to Paray-le-Monial on September 4, 1873, by the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland. The Home is now for destitute children, and is on the same lines as the sister institution at Westminster. The noticeable feature of the Home is that girls who have been placed out as dressmakers, teachers, etc., and are earning their own living, may still return every evening. The Sisters are also engaged in many other charitable works.
Manchester Square was begun in 1776 by the building of Manchester House on the north side, but the house was not finished until 1788. It was built for the Duke of Manchester, but was afterwards the residence of the Spanish Ambassador. The Roman Catholic chapel in Spanish Place was built during the Embassy from designs by Bonomi. It was restored in 1832, but has been replaced by a large church in the next street, and its site is now covered by high red-brick flats. The French Embassy succeeded the Spanish, but was withdrawn at the time of the last Revolution. The Marquis of Hertford afterwards occupied the house, and called it after himself. He was succeeded by Sir Richard Wallace, who built immense picture galleries round the garden at the back, enclosing it in a quadrangle. He almost rebuilt the house, and at his death left his famous collection of pictures and curios, which were brought here from the Bethnal Green Museum, to be eventually bequeathed to the nation, which was done on the death of Lady Wallace.
North Street leads us into a network of small slums, and Paradise Street opens into a public recreation ground, laid out with trees and shrubs, where the children play among sombre altar-tombs of a past generation. This was formerly a cemetery, consecrated in 1733, and the Marylebone historian, Smith, says that more than 80,000 persons have been interred in it. Of the names he gives—country gentlemen, baronets, captains, etc.—none are now remembered. George III.’s master-cook and Princess Amelia’s bedchamber woman are of little interest to us of the twentieth century. The only men here buried who can claim a faint degree of posthumous fame are Canning, father of the great statesman, and Bonomi the architect.
The cemetery on the north side of Paddington Street was consecrated much later, in 1772. In this also there is little of present interest. Stephen Riou, one of Nelson’s captains, killed in action at Copenhagen, deserves mention, but the others have no public memory. The Mortuary and Coroner’s Court stand near the ground, of which the greater part is attached to the workhouse for the benefit of the inmates.
Paddington Street was built about the time of the consecration of the northern graveyard. It is in the centre of a poor district, and has nothing to commend it. There is a mission-house and an Industrial Home for Destitute Boys.
In Northumberland Street stands the workhouse, built about 1775, and adjoining is a solid, well-built stone edifice containing the offices of the Guardians of the Poor. At the north-east corner of the street is the Cripples’ Home and Industrial School for Girls. The inmates are taught sewing, basket-making, and are educated, clothed, and boarded.
MARYLEBONE CHURCH.—William de Sancta Maria, who was Bishop of London in the reign of King John, appropriated the church at Tybourn to the Priory of St. Lawrence de Blakemore in Essex, but with the reservation of a maintenance for a vicar. In 1525 the Priory suffered the fate of its fellows, and the King seized the control of Tybourn Church. He passed it on to Wolsey, with license to appropriate it to the Dean and Canons of Christ Church. At Wolsey’s request they granted it to the master and scholars of his old college at Ipswich. When the Cardinal was disgraced the King resumed the Rectory, and in 1552 granted it to Thomas Reve and George Cotton. Before 1650 it came into the possession of the Forset family, from which time its history has been identified with that of the manor.
The ancient church stood at what is now the Oxford Street end of Marylebone Lane, and on account of “its lonely situation” was repeatedly robbed and despoiled. In 1400 the inhabitants made a petition to the then Bishop of London, Robert Braybrooke, to remove it to a more advantageous situation. This was granted, and license given them to erect a new church of “stones or flints” at the place where they had recently built a chapel. The former church had been dedicated to St. John the Evangelist; the new one was dedicated to St. Mary. The spot on which it was built is the same on which the old parish church now stands, near the top of High Street.
This church is described as having been a “mean edifice.” It was the original of the church delineated by Hogarth in the marriage of the rake, in his famous “Rake’s Progress.” This series was published in 1735, and the church was then in a ruinous condition. It was subsequently pulled down and rebuilt (1741) in the form in which it now stands, with the exception of some slight alterations. In a curious diary in the Harleian MSS. collection it is stated that the Rev. Randolph Ford, curate of Marylebone between 1711 and 1724, on one Sunday “married six couples, then read the whole of the prayers and preached; after that churched six women; in the afternoon read prayers and preached; christened thirty-two children, six at home, the rest at the font; buried thirteen corpses, read the distinct service over each of them separately—and all this done by nine o’clock at night.”
The only ancient charity connected with the church is a bread bequest left by Thomas Verley in 1692. He left L50, the interest to be spent in bread, twelve penny loaves to be given to the poor every Sunday. This ceremony is still observed, but the value of the money has increased, so that 5s. worth of bread is distributed every Sunday after service. The mural tablets and monuments on the walls of the church are of some interest and of great variety. The earliest dates back to 1644. The Viscountess Ossington about ten or twelve years ago had them all restored at her own expense.
Among the entries in the register are: J. Michael Rysbach, buried January 11, 1770; Allan Ramsay, buried August 18, 1784; Rev. Charles Wesley, buried April 5, 1788. Horatia, daughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, was baptized here, and also Lord Byron.
About 1770 the necessity for providing increased church accommodation became apparent, and it was first proposed to erect the new building on the north side of Paddington Street, where Mr. Portman offered a site. This land was afterwards used for a burial-ground. The next suggestion was for a site to the north of Portland Place, but this was also abandoned. Finally, the present site to the north of the old church was secured after many delays. Mr. Thomas Hardwicke (a pupil of Sir W. Chambers) was the architect of the new church, which was designed at first to be merely a chapel of ease. The first stone was laid July 5, 1813; when the building was finished it was resolved to make it the parish church, and the old church the chapel of ease. Accordingly, this was done by Act of Parliament, and the new church consecrated on February 4, 1817. In this church Robert Browning was married in 1846.
The building is of great size, seating over 1,400 people. The front is ornamented by an immense portico with six Corinthian columns, and the building is surmounted by a high belfry tower. In 1883-84 a thorough investigation of the church took place. The interior was restored in the Italian Renaissance style, the architect employed being T. Harris. An apse was added and other alterations made. The necessary funds were raised by a bazaar held in the Portman Rooms, Baker Street, in which all the features of the old Marylebone Gardens were reproduced. Close beside the church are the Central National Schools of St. Marylebone, with a higher grade Technical School for boys and girls opening on to the High Street. The latter building overlooks the graveyard filled with hoary tombstones.
At the top of High Street, in the Marylebone Road, formerly stood a turnpike, otherwise there is little to remark on in High Street. It has fallen from its former importance, and is a dingy, uninteresting thoroughfare with poor shops. This, being one of the older streets, follows a tortuous course, in contrast with more modern streets westward. We are now at the nucleus of the old village of Marylebone.
Nearly opposite to the old church was the manor-house, and its site can be fixed accurately; it was at the end of the present Devonshire Place mews, and is incorrectly described in one or two books as having been on the site of Devonshire mews, which would take it out of the High Street altogether.
This manor-house was originally a royal palace, built by Henry VIII., doubtless as a kind of hunting-lodge for the adjacent Marylebone Park, as Regent’s Park was then called.
It is said to have been visited by Mary and Elizabeth, and as there are authentic records of the latter Queen’s entertainment of the Russian Ambassador here, the statement is probably true. The house was rebuilt and considerably altered when it became the manor-house at a later date, but after having borne this title for many years it was let as a school in 1703, and was pulled down in 1791.
Another house about 100 yards south of this in the High Street has often been confounded with it (the manor-house), but this was built by Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford, for the reception of the famous Harleian collection of MSS., begun by his father and continued by himself. When this collection was purchased by the British Museum the house, known as Oxford House, became a boarding-school for girls. The grounds stretched out at the back, covering the space now occupied by Beaumont Street, Devonshire Place, and part of Devonshire Street. Some time before the house became a school these grounds were detached, and a noted bowling-green was established here. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s sharp remark in reference to this, “Some Dukes at Marylebone bowl time away,” has often been quoted. There was close to the green a noted tavern called the Rose of Normandy. This is supposed to have been built in the early half of the seventeenth century, and was a well-known resort of gamesters and idlers. Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, against whom Lady Mary’s sally was principally directed, is said to have spent much of his time there. He used to give a dinner to his associates at the end of the season, and his parting toast was, “May as many of us as remain unhanged meet here again next spring.” In a plan of the Duke of Portland’s estate in 1708 two bowling-greens are shown, one in the gardens at the back of the manor-house, and one behind the tavern. Both of these bowling-greens were afterwards incorporated into the famous Marylebone Gardens.
These Gardens were entered through the tavern above mentioned, and were opened before 1737; up to that date the public had free access, but afterwards were admitted only on payment of one shilling, for which, however, they received an equivalent of “tea before eight o’clock,” or “half a pint of wine during the concert.” There was a theatre in the Gardens, in which balls, concerts, and scenic displays took place. The musical department was for some time under the direction of Dr. Arne, and the fireworks under Signor Torre. An allegorical play was performed on June 4, 1772, in honour of the King’s birthday.
In 1778 the Gardens were closed, complaints having been made by the inhabitants as to the danger of fire from the fireworks. Pepys mentions the Gardens as “a pretty place,” and John Locke records “bowling at Marebone and Putney by persons of quality.” These Gardens formed the scene of McHeath’s debauchery in the “Beggars’ Opera.” Devonshire Place, built on the site, is a fine wide street.
Almost opposite to the church, on the north side of the Marylebone Road, is the Charity School for Girls, a large, well-built edifice, which stands back behind a high brick wall. An inscription on this wall proclaims “St. Marylebone Charity School for the maintenance and education of the daughters of poor inhabitants. Supported solely by voluntary contributions. Founded 1750. Moved to this date 1838.”
In 1750 a few benevolent gentlemen inaugurated the scheme, and at first its benefits were open to boys and girls alike. In 1754 the Dowager Countess of Oxford, having granted a piece of land in High Street for the term of 999 years at peppercorn rent, the school house was erected. The numbers of the children varied according to the income. In 1829 it was considered advisable to devote the charity exclusively to girls, and the boys were dispersed. In 1838 the present schoolhouse was built on ground leased from the Duke of Portland. P. Hardwicke was the architect, and the result is entirely satisfactory.
The girls enter at ten, or two years earlier if they are paying pupils, and remain till sixteen. They make everything for themselves at the school excepting hats and boots, and do all their own domestic work, the kitchen and laundry being under the superintendence of a cook and laundress. Large orders of needlework are executed, but the mornings are devoted to bookwork.
They still wear the picturesque dress of the time of the establishment of the foundation. On Sundays they are dressed in brown frocks with elbow sleeves and mittens, and wear white fichus and aprons and snowy Dutch caps, like the children of the Foundling Hospital. The building is on the site of Marylebone Park House, an old house, parts of which the architect has incorporated into its successor; a handsome oak floor and marble mantelpiece of the Queen Anne period are to be seen in the board-room. At its southern end High Street bifurcates, becoming Thayer Street and Marylebone Lane.
In 1839 Charles Dickens came to a large house in Devonshire Terrace, facing York Gate. This was his home for eleven years, during which appeared “Martin Chuzzlewit,” “Dombey and Son,” “David Copperfield,” and many minor works.
Marylebone Lane is a narrow, crooked street on the site of a real lane, which followed the windings of the Tyburn and overhung its left bank. At the south end stood the ancient parish church already referred to. The fact of the churchyard having surrounded the church was proved by the number of bones and human remains dug up at the foundation of the Court House. This Court House stands in a wedge-shaped block. It is now superseded by the larger Court House in Marylebone Road. The Vestry offices were in this block which was originally built in 1729, and rebuilt in 1804. It is a plain brick building, with a clock dial set in a triangular pediment. It adjoins the site of the old Watch House on ground where the parish pound stood formerly. A stone let into the adjacent building records “A.D. MDCCXXIX St. Marylebone Watch House,” and is surmounted by a coat of arms. It is curious to reflect that not so very long ago, as men count time in history, the little lonely church stood here on the brink of a stream and surrounded by fields. Marylebone Lane is now a very poor and squalid district.
In 1237 one, Gilbert Sandeford, obtained leave to convey water to the City from the Tyburn, and laid down leaden pipes, the first recorded instance of their use for this purpose in England. Once a year the Mayor and Corporation visited the head of their conduits, and afterwards held a banquet in the Banqueting House in Stratford Place. “The Lord Mayor and Aldermen and many worshipful persons rode to the conduit heads to see them, according to the old custom; and then they went and hunted a hare before dinner and killed her, and thence went to dinner at the Banqueting House at the head of the conduit, where a great number were handsomely entertained by their Chamberlain. After dinner they went to hunt the fox. There was a great cry for a mile, and at length the hounds killed him at the end of St. Giles with a great holloaing and blowing of horns at his death, and thence the Lord Mayor with all his company rode through London to his place in Lombard Street” (Strype). The Banqueting House was demolished in 1737, long after Sir Hugh Myddelton’s scheme (1618) for supplying London with water from the New River had rendered the Marylebone conduits unnecessary.
Stratford Place is a cul-de-sac opening out of Oxford Street. It was built about 1774 by Lord Stratford, the Earl of Aldborough, and others. It was Lord Stratford who built Aldborough House in this place, before which General Strode erected a column to commemorate the naval victories of England. The column, which was a Corinthian one surmounted by a statue of George III., fell in 1805, eight years after its erection. The house in Stratford Place was subsequently occupied by the Duke of St. Alban’s, Prince Esterhazy, and others.
Vere Street was called after the Veres, Earls of Oxford. The western district post-office is situated here, and at the north end is the little Church of St. Peter’s, formerly called Oxford Chapel. T. Smith says this was considered one of the most beautiful structures in the Metropolis; taste has altered considerably since those days. It is a small squat building erected in 1724 by Gibbs. In 1832 it was altered, redecorated internally, and named St. Peter’s.
The marriage of the Duke of Portland with the heiress of the Newcastle and Oxford families took place here in 1734. The Rev. F. D. Maurice was a former incumbent.
Henrietta Street was named after Henrietta, heiress of the Duke of Newcastle; and Welbeck Street, after Welbeck, the Duke of Portland’s seat in Nottinghamshire. It was one of the earliest built after Cavendish Square, and shares in the prevailing medical element of the district. The West End Hospital is on the west side, next door to Welbeck Hall, used by the Plymouth Brethren. At the upper end of the street is the Russian Embassy and chapel.
Wigmore Street is wide and lined by good shops. It was called after Wigmore Castle, the ancient seat of the Harleys, Earls of Oxford. This was one of the first streets to be built after Cavendish Square; it was burned in 1729, but rebuilt.
Wimpole and Harley Streets are long, dreary arteries which give the impression of having been cut out of cardboard. At Nos. 43 to 45 is now Queen’s College, and next door is the Governesses’ Home and Registration Office. The College was first established in 1848. It owed its origin partly to the Governesses’ Benevolent Institution, and partly to the exertions of the Rev. F. D. Maurice and the Rev. C. G. Nicolay. The first object was to assist governesses to obtain certificates of efficiency, but this is no longer the primary object. The College occupies two fine old houses thrown into one; but though the picturesque ceilings and staircases add to its interest, the narrow passages and turnings are inconvenient. The names of Kingsley, Maurice, Trench, of Sterndale Bennett and of Hullah, associated with its early development, are sufficient to give the foundation exceptional interest.
South of Weymouth Street is a poor, squalid district. In this is Westmorland Street, where stands St. James’s Chapel. This was built in 1774, and was first called Titchfield Chapel, and subsequently Welbeck Chapel, before it gained its present name. It was thoroughly restored in 1869-77. Externally, the chapel has no architectural beauty, but inside a richly-coloured Burne-Jones window, placed so low as to give the impression of an altar-piece, lights up the building.
Cavendish Square is the nucleus from which all the surrounding streets have radiated. The ground was laid out in 1717, when the circular garden in the centre was designed. For a time the name of the Square wavered between Oxford and Cavendish, and it was referred to indiscriminately as one or the other; but at length the present name gained favour. An equestrian statue of the Duke of Cumberland, presented by General Strode, formerly stood in the garden. At the southern end there is a bronze statue of Lord George Bentinck by Campbell. James Brydges, Duke of Chandos, formed a design for building in the Square a princely residence, and he took the whole of the north side for a site. He had amassed a large fortune as Paymaster in Queen Anne’s reign, and he intended to purchase all the property between this spot and Edgware, so that he might ride from town to country over his own domain. But only a part of his palace was ever completed. The two similar buildings still standing on each side of Dean’s Mews were designed for lodges. One of the wings was occupied for a time by Princess Amelia, aunt to George III., and subsequently by the Earl of Hopetown. This has since been demolished. One of these is now a convent of the nuns of the Holy Child Jesus.
On the west side of the Square is Portland House, a heavy stone edifice of great size standing back behind a high brick wall. The stables and grounds connected with it stretch through to Wimpole Street. The house was first called Bingley, and later Harcourt House. It was designed by Inigo Jones for Lord Bingley in 1722-23, and purchased after his death by the Earl of Harcourt, and when it was bought by the Duke of Portland, it was for a second time renamed. This was the only house standing when the Duke of Chandos designed his palace. The ground was then worth 2s. 6d. a square foot. In 1833 a man then living remembered a fox being killed in the Square.
The streets leading from the Square are all of about the same date, and were built or laid out in the eighteenth century. At No. 24, Holles Street Lord Byron was born.
Chandos House in Chandos Street was a part of the original house designed by the Duke of Chandos. A long, low, rough, stuccoed building, containing the Medical Society of London, is here also, besides numerous offices of other societies, mostly medical.
In Queen Anne Street, No. 23 contains the offices of the Portland estate. It is a quaintly-built house, quite modern, with a commemorative tablet to Turner, R.A., who lived here. At No. 72 Fuseli formerly lived. Portland Place was built about 1772, and measures 126 feet in width. It is one-third of a mile long, and was designed by the brothers Adam. It was Nash’s fancy to make Regent Street run straight on into Portland Place to lead up to a palace to be built for the King in Regent’s Park, but this design was subsequently abandoned. The Chinese Embassy is in No. 49.
On the site of the Langham Hotel originally stood Foley House, built by the Duke of Foley. In his lease with the Duke of Portland it was expressly stipulated that no other house should be built to block the view northward. Thus, when Portland Place was built, it was made of the present enormous width in consequence of this stipulation. Foley House was demolished in 1820, and part of the site was bought by Sir James Langham, whose name is preserved in the adjacent street. The well-known architect, Nash, was employed by him to build a house, but Sir James was dissatisfied with the construction. It is said that Nash, then employed in carrying out Langham Place, made it curve, to spite his employer, instead of carrying it on in a continuous line to Portland Place, as was at first designed.
All Souls’ Church is also Nash’s work. This church was built 1822-24, and is of a curious design with a circular portico surrounding a circular tower surmounted by a spire. The altar-piece is by Westall, R.A. The church was restored in 1876. Dr. Thomson, late Archbishop of York, and Bishop Baring of Durham, were among the former incumbents.
Queen’s Hall, close by, is used for concerts and entertainments.
The London Crystal Palace, erected in 1858, stood formerly on the site of a great drapery establishment at the north-east corner of Regent Circus.
Halfway down the part of Regent Street above the Circus is the Polytechnic Young Men’s Christian Institute and Day Schools, also the Polytechnic School of Art, founded in 1838, and enlarged ten years later. It was originally intended for the exhibition of novelties in the Arts and practical Sciences, especially agriculture and other branches of industry. Exhibitions were held here and lectures and classes established, but in 1881 the building was sold, and is now used as above indicated.
Margaret Street was named after Margaret, heiress of the Newcastle and Oxford families. In it is All Saints’ Church, a decorative building which has been described as the most beautiful church in the Metropolis. It was built by W. Butterfield, and the first stone was laid by Dr. Pusey on All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1850. The whole of the interior is covered by mural decorations. The frescoes in the chancel were executed by W. Dyce, R.A. The style is Early English, and the spire reaches a height of 227 feet.
The church stands on the site of a chapel which is said to have been the cradle of the High Church Movement in the Metropolis. It is curious to read that in the eighteenth century this chapel was an isolated building, and that a shady lovers’ walk led from it to Manchester Square, and another walk through the fields to Paddington!
In No. 204, Great Portland Street is the London Throat Hospital. The Jews’ Central Synagogue, a large and imposing building in the Byzantine style, is just to the north of New Cavendish Street. In Portland Place there was formerly a well-known tavern, the Jew’s Harp, where Onslow, Speaker to the House in George II.’s reign, used to resort incognito. St. Paul’s (episcopal) Chapel stands to the north of Langham Street. This was formerly Portland Chapel, and was erected 1766 on the site of Marylebone Basin, which had for some time formed the reservoir of a water-supply. The chapel was not consecrated until 1831, when it received its present name. This name recalls a market begun here in 1721 by Edward, Earl of Oxford, but not opened till 1731, owing to the opposition of Lord Craven. The market had a central vane, with date of foundation and the initials of Lord Harley, Earl of Oxford, and his wife. He obtained a grant “authorizing himself, his lady, and their heirs to hold a market on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays for the sale of flesh, fish, fowl, herbs, and all other provisions.” It does not seem, however, to have answered his expectations, for the central room was afterwards used as a pay-office for Chelsea out-pensioners. On the site of this Oxford Mansions now stands.
Titchfield Street was built about the end of the eighteenth century. Loutherbourg, R.A., lived here, and W. Collins, R.A., was born in this street in 1787.
All the rest of this district is very dreary. There are various chapels and charitable institutions scattered about in the streets; but it seems likely before long that land in such an advantageous position will be required for buildings of a better class, which will bring in more rent than the present ones.
Wells Street chiefly consists of large manufacturing premises. St. Andrew’s Church has been opened out by the demolition of adjoining houses. It is celebrated for its choir.
Nollekens the sculptor’s studio was at No. 9 in Mortimer Street. The Middlesex Hospital stands back from the street, with two wings enclosing a cement courtyard. This hospital was instituted in 1745 for sick and lame patients. It was first situated in Windmill Street, Tottenham Court Road, but was removed to Marylebone Fields, as the present site was then called in 1755. The site was obtained from Charles Berners on lease for the term of 999 years, and the first stone of the building was laid by the Duke of Northumberland. The building of the wings was completed in 1775, and they were extended in 1834. Various additions were made to the hospital, and improvements carried out in the interior arrangements, but it was not until 1836 that a charter of incorporation was obtained.
At the end of the eighteenth century several of the wards not then required were opened for the reception of the French refugees as a temporary shelter.
And with this we bring our “Circuit Walk” to an end, having found therein many things interesting, and not a few curious, even in a district usually accounted by no means exceptional in these respects.